


Bright Eyes

by NotEvenCloseToStraight



Series: Short Stories! [44]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Blind Character, First Kisses, Flirting, Friends to Lovers, Hurt Tony, Hurt/Comfort, IronHawk - Freeform, M/M, Protective Clint Barton
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2020-04-23 12:28:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19151047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotEvenCloseToStraight/pseuds/NotEvenCloseToStraight
Summary: After being hurt in a fight, Tony ends up temporarily blind and tries to hide it from the team so they don't worry.Clint is the only one to notice, and an honest conversation between the two about exactly how much Tony matters to the team leads to unexpected kisses.





	Bright Eyes

There weren’t very many days that Tony took the time to stop and think about the intricacies of JARVIS’s system. He would even admit that most days he took the AI for granted. It made sense in a way, Tony  _had_ designed the system after all, it would sort of be like thanking himself for being brilliant enough to design something that could anticipate his needs and therefore deserve thanks, right?   
  
_Anyway_.   
  
There weren’t very many days that Tony took the time to stop and think about the intricacies of JARVIS’s system, much less to thank him, but  _today_ was a day that Tony was both incredibly aware and entirely grateful for every bit of code that made up the AI.   
  
He didn’t know how it happened– nope, scratch that. Tony  _did_ know how it had happened. A too hard hit and the suit had taken too long to catch itself and he had knocked his head on the ground hard enough to make him see stars, and then consequently nothing at all. 

The resulting concussion from the hit had rendered Tony temporarily blind.   
  
_Hopefully_ it was temporary. 

  
  
_Please God_  let it be temporary, because Tony couldn’t see much more than a wall of black in front of him and had had to rely solely on JARVIS to announce to the rest of the team that he had been compromised, and then to get the suit home to the Tower and dismantled around him.   
  
It had been unnerving to say the least, flying totally blind. Knowing there was new information flashing through the screen in his helmet almost faster than he could read it– altitude changes, speed, weather conditions, any buildings they approached and avoided– all of that sort of thing that usually Tony saw, scanned and took into account as he flew, but this time he hadn’t been able to see any of it.   
  
JARVIS had relayed the pertinent information in a calm tone, sounding almost like a tour guide as he warned Tony they were approaching the city and which buildings were coming up on his right.   
  
Tony was completely disoriented as the suit took itself apart, feeling around for the wall as he tried to walk and it was only with his AI’s help that he made it down to the lab at all.   
  
“Run scans for me, J.” Tony said once he had made it to his desk. “Full body scans, tell me how bad this concussion is, what my eyes look like.”   
  
“ _You can’t see anything at all sir?_ ”   
  
“Nothing at all.”   
  
“ _Just a few minutes while I run a scan, hold still please_.”   
  
Tony held as still as he could, standing straight and trying to settle himself in the space. It was his lab after all, he spent more time here than in his bedroom. He knew where every piece of equipment was and every desk and the distance to the walls and how many steps it took him to get to the doors and–  
  
“ _Barring any sort of professional exam, it appears as if there is some swelling due to your fall_.” JARVIS intoned. “ _I cannot see any acute trauma, though I am limited of course. A visit to a doctor is recommended._ ”   
  
“If you think I’m alright, I’m probably alright.” Tony said slowly, feeling around for his chair and sinking it into it. “This is my desk, right?”   
  
“ _Yes Sir_.”   
  
“Did I knock anything over on my way in?”   
  
“ _No sir, everything is just as you left it_.”   
  
“Okay.” Tony took a deep breath. “This is fine. I can make my way around just fine for right now. Dum-E–” A low whir as the robot came to his side. “–hey buddy, I’m going to need you about a foot to my right at all times in here, alright? Don’t let me walk into anything stupid.”   
  
A series of clicks and beeps and Tony smiled. “Okay. This is fine. Dum-E will help me get around and no one thinks anything of it if I’m down in my lab for a few days. I’ll survive.”   
  
“ _I should alert the team, or at least Captain Rogers_.” It shouldn’t have been possible for a robot to sound disapproving, but JARVIS definitely disapproved of Tony’s plan.   
  
“Uh no…” A negative shake of Tony’s head. “No, no one needs to know about this. I’m sure I’ll wake up tomorrow morning and everything will be fine.”   
  
“ _If you insist sir_.”  
  
“I insist.” Tony swallowed back a wiggle of unease. “Everything will be fine.”  
  
******************  
******************  
Everything was  _not_ , in fact, fine in the morning, nor was it fine for the next three days. 

Tony was definitely blind.   
  
JARVIS kept doing scans and seeing no change nor anything that seemed particularly alarming besides the  _very_ alarming lack of vision, but Tony brushed off his AI’s concern.   
  
If he was admitting things, it was sort of fun to not be able to see. Not fun in the  _oh I should do this all the time sort of way_ , but in the sort of way where it forced him to focus on things he’d never focused on before.   
  
Tony thought he knew every sound Dum-E made, but having the bot in constant contact with him in the lab made Tony realize that the soft whir of Dum-E’s treads was very comforting. There was a slight hitch in the air just before JARVIS spoke, as if someone had opened an electrical current and even though Tony hated it at first, after a few days he sort of enjoyed it.   
  
Interacting naturally with the team was a little harder, but Tony learned very quickly that he could quite literally wear his sunglasses inside for no reason at all and no one felt the need to comment. In the kitchen he leaned against the counter and didn’t move, and everyone just moved around him and for movie night he posted up at the bar and no one even blinked.  
  
Tony heard the hesitation in Steve’s voice before the Captain asked for something, realized he could tell if Sam was smiling even without seeing it, and for three straight mornings drank his coffee with fat free creamer because he grabbed the wrong one out of the fridge and no one thought to say anything about it.   
  
And it made Tony maybe a little sad, that something could be so wrong with him, his day to day altered in such a life changing way and no one would pick up on it. It made him a little sad that he had lived with most of the Avengers for almost a year now, and they thought it was perfectly normal that he stood silently with sunglasses on and didn’t contribute to a conversation.   
  
It certainly made it  _easier_ to hide his blindness with no one really paying attention to him, and Tony quickly figured out the best way to do everything as fast as he could. JARVIS talked to him via earpiece as he walked so he knew when to turn, where to look when someone passed. The elevator was easy enough to operate even when he couldn’t see, but the stairs were a little trickier. Eating was hit and miss but Tony Stark had never been accused of having  _good_ eating habits, so three solid days of pizza didn’t raise any red flags.   
  
In fact, by the fourth morning Tony had adjusted well enough that when his lab doors swished open and heavy boots headed his way, he didn’t even need JARVIS to tell him who had come in.   
  
“Hey Clint.” he said easily, nodding his head in the general direction of the door. “How’s it going?”   
  
“Heya Tony.” Clint’s voice was actually coming from right behind him and Tony turned with a frown. “Did you know I was behind you, or did you have to wait until you heard me talk?”   
  
“Um–”   
  
“How long you been blind, Tony?”   
  
_Oh. Oh shit._  
  
“Um—” Tony paused, listening to the rustle of cloth as Clint folded his arms. “You know that hit I took earlier this week? Since about then.”   
  
“Since  _about_ then?” Clint repeated, disapproval dragging the words. “Or  _literally_ since then? Have you been blind for four days?”   
  
“Give or take a couple hours.” Tony mumbled, and reached behind him until his hand connected with his chair, sitting cautiously. “What about it?”   
  
“Have you been to see a doctor?” Clint sounded impatient now, the soft rumble of chair wheels as he moved on over so he could sit next to Tony. “Is this temporary? Permanent? Did you really think you could hide it with those stupid sunglasses?”   
  
“Okay in my defense? I’ve been blind for four days and you are the first one to say anything so  _yes_ I figured I could hide it behind my sunglasses. And they aren’t stupid, they’re worth more than every pair of shoes in your closet.”   
  
“ _Tony_!”   
  
“JARVIS says it’s just swelling.” He blurted, cringing away from the flash of anger from the archer. “Just swelling. He says there’s no reason why this should be permanent. I’m just sort of dealing with it for right now. If it lasts much longer I’ll got to the doctor, but my particular brand of self care has been working so far so I figure it’s fine.”   
  
“You figure it’s fine.” Clint repeated. “Jesus  _Christ_ , Tony.”   
  
Silence in the lab for a few minutes, Tony’s head tilted down towards his feet so it wouldn’t look like he was just staring, Clint quiet as he apparently thought some things over.   
  
“How did you figure it out?” Tony finally asked. “Did I give it away?”   
  
“You’ve started tipping your head to the side when you listen.” Clint pointed out. “Not really enough to mean anything, but you do it constantly when you’re in the room with more than one person. Plus you’ve started wearing an ear piece, which means it’s probably JARVIS talking you through walking, right?”   
  
“Uh, right.” Tony frowned a little. “I’m tipping my head?”   
  
“Like I do when I’ve only got one of my hearing aids in.” Clint answered ruefully. “Except I do it because I’m a dumb ass and toss my aids down where ever I fall asleep and then can only find one in the morning.  _You_ are doing it because you’re trying to hear whatever JARVIS is saying to you so you can make sure and react the right way.”   
  
“….yeah, that’s what I’m doing.”   
  
“Why wouldn’t you say something Tony?” Clint was probably throwing up his hands in frustration, but Tony couldn’t see it. “Why wouldn’t you tell the team? We were all worried about you after that hit, but you acted as normal as you always do–”   
  
“You were all worried?” Tony interrupted. “Well then why didn’t anyone come down and check on me?”   
  
“I wanted to.” Clint’s voice softened, slowed. “But the last few times I’ve tried to spend time with you down here you’ve sorta sent me away, or you were too busy to talk so I figured if you were stayin’ down here, you just didn’t want to see anyone. I didn’t want to intrude or bother you.“  
  
A beat of silence. “And I mean, I was sorta right, right? You didn’t want to  _see_ anyone?”   
  
Tony cracked a smile. “That was a terrible joke, I’m not laughing at that.”   
  
“You’re laughing a little bit.” Clint countered. “That’s the first time I’ve seen you smile all week.”   
  
Tony started to say– “What do you mean you’ve tried to spend time with me?” and the same time that Clint murmured, “I sure do like your smile Tony.”  
  
“Wait,  _what_?” Tony sat up abruptly, his head jerking up as well. “What did you say?”   
  
“I said I like your smile.” Clint said clearer. “You’ve got a nice smile.”  
  
“Oh.” Thrown for a loop, Tony’s mouth opened and closed a few times while he tried to figure out what to say. “Well um–”   
  
“That’s when you’re supposed to say thank you.” Clint prompted. “Or ‘wow Clint, you got a great smile too’. Not just look at me like I’m crazy.”   
  
“I just–” Tony shrugged a little helplessly. “I don’t really know– I mean do you– okay, what is happening right now?”   
  
“I’m not real good with words, Tony.” Clint cleared his throat. “Not like you are, so let me just-”   
  
“What do you mean you’re not–” Tony startled when a calloused palm landed on his cheek, a hand at his waist to steady him. “Clint–?”   
  
Warm lips against his own then, and when Tony gasped a little, a questing tongue ventured into his mouth, sliding and curling alongside his own until he could barely breathe from it. Unbidden, his hands traveled up Clint’s arms to the broad shoulders, his fingers digging in to firm muscle and then further up into shaggy hair, tugging at it until Clint sighed and gathered Tony even closer.   
  
He tensed when Clint scooted him towards the edge of the chair, but the archer murmured, “I’ve got you, babe..” and then they were kissing  _again_ , both of Clint’s arms wrapped securely around his waist and holding him steady, a quiet moan when Tony finally went a little limp against Clint’s chest, trusting him to not let them fall.   
  
“Tony.” Clint whispered as they parted, so close that his lips brushed Tony’s cheek as he spoke. “Don’t want you to think I’m takin’ advantage or anything like that. Just hard to get up the courage to do this sorta thing when I know you can see me.”   
  
“What–what–” Tony’s brain still wasn’t quite online so he cleared his throat and tried again. “What do you mean?”   
  
“I mean that sometimes you look at me and it sure seems like you see  _everything_.” Gentle fingers trailing through Tony’s hair. “And then you laugh or make a sarcastic comment or whatever and I’m always afraid you see that I want you and that you don’t want to deal with it. Don’t want to deal with me.”  
  
“So you waited till I couldn’t see you coming to sneak attack me?” Tony couldn’t resist the snark, his mind was still barely functioning after that kiss. “That seems sketchy.”   
  
“I’ll admit to being a sketchy sort of guy.” Clint chuckled, but he still sounded unsure. “I know I probably should have started with asking you out for dinner or something, but I’ve already gone and kissed you so um– was this weird? Too weird?”   
  
“It was weird.” Tony nodded and could feel Clint’s shoulders slump. “But I think a second kiss is in order, just so I know for sure. Can’t make any decisions without enough data, you know?”   
  
“Yeah?” Clint kissed him again in a heartbeat, crushing their mouths together and groaning under his breath when Tony kissed him back hungrily. “Good?”   
  
“Good.” Tony was panting when Clint pulled away this time, leaning forward until their foreheads touched. “Do I really look at you like that? Like I don’t want you? Because I had no idea that you wanted  _any_ of this.”   
  
“Maybe I was reading you wrong.” Clint slid his hands a little lower on Tony’s hips, hovering at the top of the tempting curve of his rear. “Maybe I’m more subtle than I think I am.”   
  
“You are the least subtle person I know.” Tony deadpanned and Clint protested, “I’m a super spy! Give me a little bit of credit!”   
  
“You’ll get more credit if you kiss me again.”   
  
“You drive a hard bargain, Iron Man. But I’m willing to meet your terms.”   
  
*******************  
*******************  
  
The rest of the week was taken up with stolen kisses and lots of hand holding and Clint posting up by Tony’s side as much as he could to help him through the day without making it seem too obvious what he was doing. There were quiet conversations in the lab in the early mornings, and sharing food at night, and Tony actually laughing as Clint gave him play by plays of the day complete with hilarious descriptions of everyone and what had gone on while Tony couldn’t see a damn thing.   
  
Thursday came and went and Clint didn’t make it back to the Tower until after dinner time. The first thing he did was ditch his gear and take the stairs down to the lab as fast as he could so he could get to Tony.   
  
They hadn’t had the whole “this is what we’re doing” or “this is what we feel” talk yet. Hell, they hadn’t even made it past kissing and what could pass for the  _lightest_ grope yet, and Clint was starting to get a little antsy. Not because he was in a hurry for sex ( _lies_ ) but because he didn’t know if Tony actually felt anything for him or if they were just messing around or anything else like that.   
  
But he figured tonight they could at least chat about it, at least start a general discussion over what was going on because Clint was definitely ready for–  
  
_Oh_. He slowed to a stop outside the lab doors when he heard the music playing and saw Tony working at his computer, spinning in his chair to do something else and stopping to text on his phone.  
  
“Well hello there.” Clint stepped through the door and sauntered towards Tony’s desk. “When did you get your vision back?”   
  
“Hey.” Tony beamed a smile up at him. “Actually, it started getting better yesterday so I went in for a few scans today and the doc says there’s barely any swelling anymore, but that I shouldn’t strain my eyes so–”  
  
“– so you’re doing eight different things at once?” Clint finished. “ _Definitely_ not straining your eyes.”   
  
“I’ve only been at it for an hour.” Tony countered, and puckered his lips for a kiss. “How was your day?”   
  
“It was fine.” Clint bent to kiss him, then kissed him a little longer when Tony’s hands curled into his shirt and pulled him closer. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t relieved– a tiny piece of him had really thought Tony would pull away once his vision came back and Clint had been nearly sick to his stomach about it.   
  
“You’re thinking.” Tony frowned a little. “I can practically see your brain working overtime. What are you thinking about?”   
  
“Nothing.” Clint smiled and bumped their noses teasingly. “Just thinkin’ bout you, bright eyes.”   
  
“Oh god, is that a thing?” Tony made a face and Clint kissed it away. “Bright eyes? Is that what you’re going to call me?”   
  
“It’s either bright eyes, or I’m going to ask you ‘jeepers creepers, where’d you get those peepers’ every time I see you.” Clint said seriously. “Pick your poison.”   
  
“Wow. Bright eyes it is.”   
  
“Bright eyes it is.” Clint nodded and tugged coaxingly until Tony left his own chair and settled on Clint’s lap. “So I wanted to tell you something.” he began.   
  
“You can’t break up with me now that I can see!” Tony’s voice pitched in alarm. “That’s not fair.”   
  
“I’m not breaking up with you.” Clint laughed and cuddled him a little closer. “But you said something the other day that bugged me so I figured I’d should clear it up.”   
  
“Oh? Um– alright?”   
  
“You said no one noticed that something was wrong.” Tony tensed in Clint’s arms, but Clint didn’t let him pull away. “ _I_  noticed Tony. We  _all_ noticed, alright? But you don’t let us close, so we don’t try to get close and I–” a deep breath. “–I’m sorry it took you having some ridiculous accident for me to decide to speak up.”   
  
“Oh.” Tony nodded a little. “Well I’m sorry that I don’t… that I don’t let people get close. And you. Sorry I didn’t let you get close.”  
  
“That’s alright.” Clint said immediately. “You can make it up to me by getting naked.”   
  
“CLINT!”   
  
“I meant by getting  _closer_.”   
  
“Oh my god, Clint. Why do I even like you?” 


End file.
